Japan moves to settle dispute with U.S. over Okinawa base relocation

Source: The Washington Post

The Japanese government indicated Friday that it would broadly accept a plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps base on Okinawa, a move that could ease months of discord between the two allies, U.S. and Japanese officials said.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada presented U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos with a proposal to settle the dispute, telling him that Japan was moving toward accepting significant parts of a 2006 deal to move the Futenma air station from the center of a city of 92,000 to a less populated part of Okinawa, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Okada, however, suggested some changes, including altering the design of the runway at the new air station, planned for the town of Henoko, and moving parts of the Marine Corps facility to an island about 100 miles from Okinawa, the sources said. U.S. officials said they were pleased by the proposal but stressed that it was a first step and that Japanese officials would be providing more details next week.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042305080.html?wprss=rss_politics

Buiding a new base there should feed, clothe, and house all of humanity. And we can make a museum out of the old one

Eventually that's going to happen. Empires don't last forever.

who have too much influence in the Japanese gov't. Its quite possible that those making money off of it and those in the Japanese gov't are one and the same.

The Japanese spend their money on true universal health care. We spend our money on military bases in Japan.

Japan’s PM under pressure as almost 100,000 demand base be moved

By Chikafumi Hodo
updated 4:52 a.m. MT, Sun., April 25, 2010

TOKYO - Nearly 100,000 people rallied on Japan's Okinawa on Sunday to demand a U.S. airbase be moved off the island, media said, deepening the prime minister's woes as he struggles to resolve a feud by an end of May deadline.

Voters' perception that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mishandled the row over the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase on Okinawa, a reluctant host to the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan, is eroding support for his government as a key mid-year upper house election approaches.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party, which swept to power in a general election last year, needs a decisive victory in the upper house poll, expected in July, to enact legislation smoothly.

Some, even within Hatoyama's own party, say failure to resolve the row by his self-imposed deadline could force him to resign before the election.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36752304/ns/world_news-asiapacific/